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Monday, July 9, 2012

if you're a singer

This is my precious bff here in Indiana, Mandy. I am using this photo with her permission. :)

Mandy isn't an excessive twitterer or instagram user. She keeps a blog, but she wouldn't define herself a blogger. She's creative and crafty, but she doesn't run an Etsy shop. She isn't super into social media and she isn't creating a brand. All that being said, she isn't in my online world and yet - I think she is one of the most valuable and wise women of God I know.

Mandy is a singer. She's a songwriter. She's such a crazy gifted worship leader and songwriter that she doesn't even know how gifted she is. She doesn't see God's grace and power inside of her and stand in awe of it.

I am not a singer. I cannot make myself a singer. If I tried for 40 hours a week, I could not have a successful singing career. If I wrote a song, it would be cheesy. If I decided to be a singer, I wouldn't be honoring who God has made me to be and in some ways - I wouldn't be honoring the precious talent that my beautiful friend has been gifted with by trying to imitate it.

The other day my precious friend and I were talking about ways we wanted the Lord to use us and ways we both felt ineffective for Him. We were essentially comparing ourselves to women with other gifts - maybe women we didn't even know, just pictures we were making up in our heads.

Later, as I was thinking and praying on Mandy and how precious she was, the Lord smacked me in the heart with how I'd failed to encourage her. I should have grabbed her by the face and said, "GIRL! You are a singer! God has given you a sick talent and you barely recognize it anymore because it is so natural and so easily used!". She doesn't need to write a book or run a shop or have a side catering company or be a professional sewist (though she probably COULD do all of those things) because He has given her this one thing that she is INCREDIBLE at. He's given her a lot, actually - I was just smacked with that one in particular.

It would be silly to see a worship leader or professional recording artist and say, "I'm gonna do that tomorrow! I'm just gonna wake up and start!", because it's so obviously something you have to be gifted at. The world of online media isn't like that. Everyone feels like they could, or they NEED to have a shop, a blog, a cause, a brand, a following. But what if everyone isn't called?What if everyone isn't gifted? What if we are missing out on what God has for usbecause we want to fit the mold of what He has for others? What if we could be eternally profitable if we'd give up the idea of what we think we should be doing for what we should be doing?

When Ellen and I first dreamed up Sashes a year ago, our biggest desire was to be an encouragement to creative women that also gave them the freedom to know - they might not be supposed to run a creative business. Do you feel that freedom? Do you know you don't have to be a singer?